Translation-driven Corpora

Book excerpt: Electronic texts and text analysis tools have opened up a wealth of opportunities to higher education and language service providers, but learning to use these resources continues to pose challenges to scholars and professionals alike. Translation-Driven Corpora aims to introduce readers to corpus tools and methods which may be used in translation research and practice. Each chapter focuses on specific aspects of corpus creation and use. An introduction to corpora and overview of applications of corpus linguistics methodologies to translation studies is followed by a discussion of corpus design and acquisition. Different stages and tools involved in corpus compilation and use are outlined, from corpus encoding and annotation to indexing and data retrieval, and the various methods and techniques that allow end users to make sense of corpus data are described. The volume also offers detailed guidelines for the construction and analysis of multilingual corpora. Corpus creation and use are illustrated through practical examples and case studies, with each chapter outlining a set of tasks aimed at guiding researchers, students and translators to practice some of the methods and use some of the resources discussed. These tasks are meant as hands-on activities to be carried out using the materials and links available in an accompanying DVD. Suggested further readings at the end of each chapter are complemented by an extensive bibliography at the end of the volume. Translation-Driven Corpora is designed for use by teachers and students in the classroom or by researchers and professionals for self-learning. It is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in this fast growing area of scholarly and professional activity.